


Waiting For Lightning To Strike

by Essen



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-26
Updated: 2011-12-26
Packaged: 2017-10-28 04:31:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/303758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Essen/pseuds/Essen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five moments of Elena's life post-Stefan. Follows on from 3x09.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waiting For Lightning To Strike

**Author's Note:**

> Ficlet and first TVD fic foray. Inspired by prompt at http://softly-me.livejournal.com/188407.html

1

  
She talks the talk but letting him go is a lot harder than it sounds. She starts by sweeping everything that reminds her of him into a box, intended to be shelved away in some dark closet corner. All that happens is that she keeps needing a larger box - _who knew she had so much Stefan paraphernalia?_ \- and she ends up leaving a sizeable carton by her chest of drawers.

(She'll leave it there until she can haul it up to the attic.)

2

  
She wakes in terror, pulse racing and clammy with sweat. The Klaus of her nightmares is all at once more terrible and less so than the real one, shattering through her sleep more often these days. She automatically reaches for her phone, fingers sliding over the screen for the speed dial - _number 1, of course he is, overtaking Bonnie in just 3 months_ \- when she remembers that he is gone.

And that she is supposed to be letting him go.

3

  
Damon moves erratically around the place, zooming from room to room, and she watches him as best she can, with wary eyes and troubled heart. He pauses to destroy a whole shelf of books in the library, throwing the volumes into the fireplace, then races to rearrange the couches and rugs, lining them with utmost precision.

She realises he cannot put aside the Stefan-shaped well of emotions the way she can, even if only for a moment at a time; he cannot help save her too.

4

  
Jeremy, Bonnie, Caroline...everyone: they all have their own crap to sort through and make the best of. And she? She has Damon. His very presence reminds her that it happened, that _he_ used to be here with them too. She clings to it, to Damon, without realising at first.

She clings to him later when she's tired of pretending they aren't all each other have, that they need each other just to stop needing _him_.

5

  
Her phone buzzes to life at 2.13 in the morning and she answers with less fatigue than she feels. A hint of exhalation replies and her heart thuds hard against her ribs for one painful second before Katherine sighs again. She wants them to know he's no longer in the country - _he doesn't even know I'm calling_ \- and that he's not coming back. _Not in your lifetime_.

(Next morning, Jeremy helps her lug that stupid box up to the attic.)


End file.
